Here we go again:

Minneapolis police say several officers sustained minor injuries during a protest over the shooting of a black man by an officer.

Inspector Mike Friestleben told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the officers were hurt Wednesday night after being hit by water bottles and rocks. Scores of protesters had gathered outside the 4th Precinct headquarters, near where 24-year-old Jamar Clark was shot Sunday. He died a day later.

Friestleben also says police arrested one man on suspicion of slashing the tires of an unmarked squad car.

Police told TV station WCCO several squad cars in the precinct parking lot sustained “significant damage” from bricks.

The reason for this protest, like so many others in recent years, are claims by so-called “eyewitnesses” that the man shot, Jamar Clark, was a victim instead of a perpetrator. These “witnesses” claim that Clark had his hand handcuffed behind his back when a Minneapolis cop shot him in what they characterize as an execution.

We’ve heard the same sort of rhetoric time and again, that the deceased “didn’t deserve” to be shot.

We heard it with Trayvon Martin.

We heard it with Michael Brown.

We’ve heard it with a dozen other criminals, armed and unarmed, in various states at various times.

In all of those times, there were just a handful of events where the claims of the “witnesses” bore any resemblance to reality.

Trayvon Martin came up behind George Zimmerman and attacked him as Zimmerman was walking to his truck.

Michael Brown was shot and killed after he charged police officer Darren Wilson after first attempting to disarm Wilson in his vehicle.

And the evidence suggests that Jamar Clark, who has a violent criminal history, had both hands free and was attempting to disarm a police officer when he was shot by MPD officers who have every right to defend themselves with lethal force against an “unarmed” man attempting to seize control of their weapons.

Here’s an idea, folks.

Stop being thugs.

Stop committing crimes that draw police attention, such as assaulting paramedics attempting to treat someone.

Stop attacking the police officers that have to arrest you for committing violent crime.

The Black Lives Matter movement actively supports criminal behavior against law-abiding citizens and those institutions that serve and protect the public.

Instead of encouraging them, or kowtowing to them, we should be looking at ways to charge their organizers with inciting riots, and encourage the media to report on the facts, not on the claims of “witnesses” who won’t file a sworn statement for fear of being charged with perjury.